


Camping In These Pages

by tabbykats



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anniversary, Camping, Diary/Journal, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hauntober, Light Angst, M/M, October, October Prompt Challenge, Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26929420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbykats/pseuds/tabbykats
Summary: Day 10 of Hauntober - ForestKeith and Lance go camping in a forest. It seems like nothing is going their way but somehow, they make it through with smiles, maybe even a few tears.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Camping In These Pages

**Author's Note:**

> A fic is for Tumblr's "Hauntober" challenge.

“You grab the sleeping bags?” 

It was early in the day, 6 am to be exact. Lance wasn’t tired though. No, not at all. He was brimming with energy, the shine in his eyes made it obvious. 

“Yeah! I put them in the back when you were stuffing your face!” Keith grinned as he exited the front entrance of a rickety, old shack they’d dubbed home. “You tell Pidge we’re leaving?” Lance nodded as he hopped into the front of a rusting old pickup.  
“She said and I quote ‘you fucktwats have fun just try not to traumatize the innocent forest animals with your-’” 

A fat drop of water hit the back of Lance’s neck. He screeched and scrambled to close the door of the truck. Keith secured the back before climbing into the driver’s seat. Rainwater spattered onto the truck. All the two boys could do was watch in misery. 

“I thought you said it wasn’t gonna rain!” Keith screeched in a voice just a little higher from what’s normal. Lance held his hands up, making all sorts of motions.  
“No, no, I _said_ there was a forty percent chance of rain in the early morning. It was _you_ who said ‘forty is basically nothing and we should just go!’ Keith groaned, leaning back into the worn leather of the driver seat. 

The smell of day-old burritos was faint when compared to the overwhelming odor of the pouring rain. For some reason, despite their current circumstances, Keith laughed. He laughed loudly before leaning into Lance’s seat to hug him. 

“Uhh, Keith? Dude? You’re kinda freaking me out here.” Keith nuzzled into Lance’s neck and sighed, grinning when he felt Lance shiver.  
“I’ve waited for an entire month for this day off, an entire month to spend this single, perfect day with you.” They both stayed silent for a while. Keith felt Lance’s hands traveling over his red hoodie in a soothing gesture.  
“The day isn’t over yet, Keith.” Smiling, Keith answered while brushing his fingers at the back of Lance’s bare neck.  
“I know and I fully intend on enjoying it, even in this rain.” 

Lance pulled Keith away to give him a quick peck before fishing out an aged, blue ipod from a bag set on the dash. Keith started the car as a slow melody took over the quiet atmosphere of his father’s truck. Lance hummed along, singing verses under his breath. The song following was a song that never failed to remind him of wild nights in the woods, cryptid hunting with Pidge. It had an eerie undertone that you’d only hear when you listen closely.  
A soft piano filled the car as the next song played. It sounded like someone was tapping their fingers against starlight and it reminded Keith of Hunk’s cautious hands when icing gluten-free delicacies for him.  
The succeeding song had a guitar solo that was loud, heavy, and brash. It reminded Keith of days spent training with Shiro. Of his brother dragging his ass to get his cuts bandaged, literally.  
The final song was a gentle breeze on a night walk. Keith looked over to Lance who was drumming his fingers against the armrest. Keith’s right hand was quickly placed over Lance’s before it was brought up to his lips for a quick kiss. 

“When the hell did you become such a romantic?” Keith pinched Lance’s hand and chuckled when the boy beside him shrieked.  
“When I met this idiot, he set himself on fire in the chemistry lab sophomore year.” Lance lightly punched Keith before turning around to grab something from the back seat. 

Keith drummed his fingers to the tune of a fast-paced song with a heavy bass. Lance turned back, a tattered blue journal in his hands. Stickers from an assortment of different anime decorated the coffee-stained cover. Keith grimaced at the sight of it. 

“Do you really have to bring that thing with you everywhere?” Lance roared with laughter.  
“You bought it for me on our last anniversary! Of course, I’m going to carry it everywhere.” Keith sighed.  
“But it’s so embarrassing.” Lance smirked, leaning in close.  
“What’s embarrassing? The fact that it has a photo of you in a cat onesie taped inside or the inscription on the inner front cover.” Keith’s eyes looked up to the roof of the car before humming and answering.  
“Both,” he said plainly. Lance flipped to the front of the journal.  
“See?? I didn’t forget our anniversary, you stupid shark.” Keith flushed. 

In truth, the journal was-- let’s say… a last-minute gift to Lance from a nearby bookstore.  
“Shut up,” Keith muttered. Lance replied by singing the lyrics to some random Hamilton song out loud. Soon enough, Keith joined in. 

Since Keith had bought the journal for Lance, Lance had never let him look through it, not once. What was drawn and written inside was a complete mystery to Keith. He didn’t mind though. He respected Lance’s privacy and Lance respected Keith’s cryptid board.  
“Ocean’s rise! Empire’s fall!!” Lance screeched from the passenger seat. Keith chuckled at Lance’s awfully fake accent. If Allura was here, she’d kill him for sure.  
The truck drove on through the rain, sliding only a couple of times. 

The campsite was surprisingly, not muddy, to Keith and Lance’s disbelief.  
“Aw yeah! The rain is on our side today!!” Keith set down their bags as Lance began hopping over wooden logs and scrounging the ground for mushrooms.  
“Why the sudden interest in fungi?” Lance surveyed a damp area near a tree.  
“I want to try drawing some. I thought it would be a fun challenge for Hauntober this year. The theme is 'forest' after all.” Keith shook his head as he began unpacking.  
“Do you have to do your drawing challenges every year?” Lance stood up from his spot by the tree.  
“Do you have to go cryptid hunting with Pidge every weekend?” Keith froze before raising his hands in surrender.  
“Point received.” Lance's eyes slipped close and he bowed his head.  
“That’s what I thought.” 

Keith ended up organizing the camp on his own. He didn’t mind though. Lance would make these cute little squeaks every time he found something interesting. He tried to offer his help but Keith would simply sweep him off his feet before plopping him down on a tree stump and telling him to ‘draw.’ 

Keith had known Lance since they were ten. To a young Keith, Lance had been the kid two houses down that spoke in a language Keith couldn’t understand. Having lived in America, Keith only ever learned English. The memory of songs sung in what his mother explained was Korean was foreign to him. Yet, he remembers the lullaby his father sang every night, every time a storm raged. Word for word in harshly soft tones. He just never understood what it meant. 

Keith first met Lance when he was singing a fast-paced song while doodling something on his homework by a pine tree. The song was loud, brazen, and despite it being so sharp and pitchy, flowing from Lance’s mouth, it pulled Keith in.  
Keith hid behind the base of the tree, but Lance turned out to be surprisingly perceptive. He let Keith listen to his harmonious words and when he was done, greeted him. Keith got startled, thinking he’d gotten in trouble and ran the other direction. 

That moment was what fueled their little rivalry. Lance would casually drop words whenever he walked past him, but Keith never understood them, couldn’t even pronounce them himself. It wasn’t until Valentine’s day that Keith got a card from a ‘secret enemy’ that Keith decided to do some research on. The looping words on the card were obviously Lance’s handwriting, that much was evident. All Keith had to do was scan the words with a translator app and he got something unexpected in the middle of a Chemistry class. Keith blushed. Across from him, Lance was too focused on the bright red of Keith’s face to notice a vile spill onto an uncovered plug socket. Lance’s brand new pair of khakis went up in flames instantly. Thankfully, he took Phys Ed. that year, and was able to change into his sweaty, uniform shorts.  
After classes resumed, Lance went to his locker to find a note. Messy writing made it hard to read the roughly scrawled words but the tiny heart in the corner got the message across well enough. Keith and Lance’s first kiss occurred in the back of an alleyway on the way home from school. 

Now, as Keith watched Lance’s hand glided over stained pages, he was so happy and grateful for having this amazingly talented boy walk into his life. Lance was his sun, moon, stars, and even more than that.  
“Are you sure you’re okay Keith? You’ve been leaning against that tree for a while now.” Keith blushed upon getting caught. He went to sit next to Lance on a slightly damp log. Lance immediately shifted away. Keith frowned before seeing the tattered, blue journal. 

“Oh, you’re still drawing.” Lance nodded.  
“Why won’t you ever let me watch you?” Lance rolled his eyes as he went to erase something.  
“I don’t need you messing up the process.”  
“I won’t bother you.”  
“You’re bothering me now.” Keith pouted, he looked at Lance with a longing gaze until Lance groaned and put his journal down. Immediately, he was cuddling against Keith and Keith felt as if he had been bathed in a heavenly light. 

The sun was still in the sky, grey clouds creating long shadows on the ground below them. It reminded Keith of the days he spent out in the forest with his dad. Under the cover of a tent, Keith would shake as the darkness submerged him, it dragged him into its own cruel world. The oncoming clouds meant danger. It meant panic attacks and shaking with fear. That was until his father swept him up in a warm hug. Keith would calm down, remember to breathe and listen to his Father’s foreign lullaby. He’d fall right asleep in his arms. 

Keith’s eyes blinked open to a gorgeous, blazing red fire. Hands were brushing through his hair, the sound of pencil scratching on paper filled his ears, almost as much as the crackling of the fire.  
“Oh, you awake?” Keith slowly got up from Lance’s lap, rubbing his eyes.  
The sky was dark, not a cloud in sight. Instead, flickers of light filled the black canvas.  
“How long was I asleep?” Lance put his journal to the side.  
“A couple of hours. My legs are on their way to heaven because of you,” he chuckled.  
“You should’ve woken me up. I wasted our day.” Lance got up to stretch.  
“No, you didn’t. It was funny hearing you snore. I had to hold my hand over my mouth because you were so loud. Keith flushed, turning away.  
“Anyway, have you just been drawing the whole time?”  
“-and writing,” Lance added on. He rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding Keith’s eyes.  
“Would you like to see?” Keith spun his head so fast, he heard _something_ crack.  
“W-what?”  
“Would you like to see my journal, K-Keith?” Keith walked over to Lance slowly. His hands were shaking slightly, clutching the tattered blue book, the tips of his fingers a ghost white.  
“A-are you sure, Lance?” Lance nodded.  
“Okay then.”

The two of them sat together in their enclosed tent, a single lantern their only light.  
Lance clung to Keith’s arm as Keith slowly opened the book. Immediately, he giggled at the inscription. Still there in red ink, _See?? I didn’t forget our anniversary, you stupid shark._  
Moving forward, a lovely pattern adorned the front page.  
“Hunk’s tattoo?” Lance nodded.  
“He asked me to design it, remember?”  
“Ha, yeah. You didn’t want to do it cause you were scared it wouldn't turn out well but Hunk still shows it off every time we get drinks.”

Keith flipped through countless pages of drawings, doodles, quotes, notes, and poetry. Every little encounter in the past year was written in these worn pages. Lance and Keith reminisced over old stories, occasions they had forgotten, and traced quivering fingers over random doodles until the late night. 

Upon the last page, Keith felt tears swell.  
There, taped to the back end of the journal was a hastily written note on lined paper. Stained and tattered with age, it was perhaps the most precious thing this journal contained.  
Lance held Keith as the lantern dimmed.  
“Feliz aniversario, Keith.”  
“Happy anniversary to you too, Lance.” 

_Te amo, Keith._

_I love you too, Lance._

**Author's Note:**

> This was based on what my father gave my mother as an anniversary gift. A book with the inscription "See? I didn't forget our anniversary, you shady cow."
> 
> Comments are appreciated.


End file.
